In Depth |
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The BB 4 washlight is a powerful led fixture with a new generation of combined RGB high power leds with homogenised output. Designed for a life on tour and packed full of control versatility and rigging/ de-rigging simplicity. This fixture can be used outdoors as well as indoor in fixed installations or travelling around the world.
This fixture is packed full of control versatility and ease of use when rigged in different configurations or used as part of a video matrix, or simply as a blinder! The i-pix BB4 is packed with features that every tech would expect, whilst catering for the needs of discerning lighting designer making this fixture a very hire friendly work-horse device with plenty of different indoor and outdoor applications. | 
BB4 Blinders on Coldplay
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Additive colour mixing saves energy
Filtering processes waste energy by their very nature; additive colour mixing as used with the BB washlight series, works on drawing only the power required. So in blackout the device only consumes a total of nine watts, on full power this equates to 120 watts maximum power draw. |
The light engines
Four custom lamina combined RGB leds use groundbreaking thermal performance. A key factor in determining life and reliability. Unmatched by any other manufacturer, Laminas light engines are used to deliver the light you would expect from a new generation led fixture.
The unique optical path ensures a completely blended source leaves the fixture, ideal as a wash device or direct view. The four light engines are fitted to a substantial passive heatsink with the shortest gap between silicone die to heatsink, making this fixture one of the best thermally managed led fixtures available.
Colour consistency comes from a demanding colour specification with tight wavelength tolerances to ensure the lighting designer has the right primary colours to achieve colours in the billions including a variety of whites.
In fact the blended sources retain the energy when tungsten or daylight white is chosen, thus improving on what the market was used to before the BB4's introduction.
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Optics
Four-micro Plano convex/fresnel optics produce four 20-degree conical beams which can be easily beam adjusted by simply sliding in holographic films in the front accessory slot. Selections of beam shapers move the fixture from symmetrical to asymmetric distribution ideal of cyc and set illumination when an even flat field is required. Further beam accessories increase the range of visual direct view looks or shroud the beam so just the beam is present. Whichever way you intend to use this product, we think the most common applications have a beam adjuster that adds to this fixtures versatile range of jobs you would expect from us.
We ship with the asymmetric beam shaper included. See our website for a variety of more uncommon beam angles you may find of use to your design. |
Lifetime
Our power side comes with a three year warranty as standard and on full the powers supplies are running at less than 40% capacity to increase the lifetime.
The leds are slightly under run (by 100mA) to further increase the lifetime, which is expected to exceed 50-100,000 hours as a consequence.
The system is solid state in design and thus solid in performance with no lamps to dispose of, no pollution risk as a consequence and the system is capable of upgrade along the way if we make further enhancements.
We have not built in obsolescence design because we want this fixture to last beyond its fashionable period into a life of years of trouble free use. |
Heat management and IP protection
We have adopted a passive heatsink, designed to dissipate the heat to air via a substantial heatsink, which allows for both vertical and horizontal rigging with no loss of efficiency. This unit is hermetically sealed to IP67 rating and can be easily disconnected from the power box.
The power box contains an active low airflow circulation via two fans, which cool down the two power supplies and isolating transformer so the fixture can be used in high ambient environments.
The unit can be used outdoors if rigged the to light upwards and mounted horizontally. For a higher IP rating to IP67, simply remote locate the power box and feed from a 15 volt 7 way multicore. |
Electrical safety
Two IP67 rated combined power and data cables give ease of use for hooking up fixtures when used in multiples from one power line. A maximum of 12 fixtures can be ‘daisy-chained’ from one power feed. |
User interface
The LCD display shows the user at a glance the status of the fixture, dmx address, mode and data present. Its very easy to change all of the parameters. We have included channel information on the power box corresponding to the modes shown. DMX data present is also provided. An invert button changes the orientation of the four pixels for awkward rigging situations.
Four membrane switches provide easy scrolling through the modes and address, whilst also providing a high IP rating for use outdoors. |
Control modes
Ten different control modes, easily accessed and adjusted from the on board user interface allow the user to switch from low channel standard resolution (8bit) to high resolution (16bit) which increases the possible ways to use the fixture for high strobing step free use of each of the colours in all combined pixels or 4 pixels of RGB.
We advise 16-bit mode 10 to gain full use of the control possibilities.
We have and continue to work closely with the console manufacturers to ensure that you gain the most control from our fixtures. With DMX merge both control and pixel mapping is possible, further adding to the units versatility when used as a matrixed low-resolution video display, but with over a 1000 lumens per pixel!
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Rig and De-rig
We have aimed to provide a very simple fixture when used daily for a life on tour. We hope our experience in this field shows in practical use.
We have halved the cable connections with both a combined power and data cable, together with conventional separate power and data, the combined power and data solution is there as an option if you want to halve your cable hook up time whilst also increasing the fixtures IP rating.
There are over eight different points that can be picked up to rig the unit, vertically, horizontally, end to end in both orientations, outdoors or from a variety of rigging frames.
Lighting designers will enjoy the variety of different ways our fixture can be rigged. Helping keep the design fresh.
Hire companies will appreciate the maintenance free, durable fixture designed for a variety of different jobs whether used indoors or outdoors. | 
BB4 Blinders on Coldplay |
Applications:
The BB4 is perfectly suited for life on-the-road as a low power wash unit or replacement for traditional crowd blinders, but is equally at home in film/TV, exhibition or theatre work, as well as permanent installations. Recent uses include the Big Day Out 2009 tour (Australia & New Zealand) – Boiler Room, lighting the Prodigy, Good Vibrations 2009 tour (Australia) and Coldplay Australian tour 2009. |
